Iris
by pearlydewdrop
Summary: Sequel to 'Wonderwall'(although it can be read on it's own). Mulder and Scully have been the best of friends since kindergarten. They know each other better than anyone. Constant, Touchstones, one in five billion from day one. Together they have been through hell and back and neither of them are going anywhere...are they?
1. Chapter 1

**Iris: Chapter 1 (Aged 17)**

* * *

 _..._

 _Today is gonna be the day that they're gonna throw it back to you_

 _By now you're gonna somehow_

 _Realise what they've gotta do_

 _I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now._

 _~ Wonderwall, Oasis_

 _..._

The Mulder Family Residence

Martha's Vineyard

Sometime During The Summer of 1979

...

"O Juliet, Juliet!—wherefore art thou my sweet Juliet? Deny thy father and refuse thy name. Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I'll no longer be a-"

"Mulder", Scully whined, shivering slightly in a pair of red tartan pyjamas bottoms, combat boots and the leather jacket and oversized NASA t-shirt that she had been wearing earlier at school. "Get down here. I'm freezing."

It was a fairly pleasant summer's night, dry but with quite a chilly breeze in the air that, much to Scully's annoyance, blew her long auburn hair all over the place.

"Aww but Scully, you were missing my big leading lady moment", Mulder yelled down sarcastically, with a crooked half smile, squeezing his lanky frame out through his bedroom window before loudly clamouring across the roof towards the tree that had come in extremely handy for late night meetings ever since sleepovers had become out of the question when they were in the seventh grade.

It was a move they had both perfected in the last seven years, Mulder not quite as silently as Scully and even though using the window to get out of Mulder's house probably wasn't necessary anymore(since his parents barely cared what he did these days at all), there was something liberating about escaping a place through the window.

"Is this demonstration of boyish agility turning you on at all?", he called down to her, stretching for the lowest branch his seriously long legs would allow.

Eighteen year old Fox Mulder was a handsome guy. Lean like a swimmer, with a look that was the perfect balance between clean-cut and 'I don't give a crap'. His dark brown hair just about hit the collar of his washed-out looking Star Wars shirt, and the front was long enough to cover his eyes.

Scully rolled her eyes, looking up at him half amused and half annoyed as he jumped down from the tree beside her, clumsily taking out a nice percentage of the wild-looking white rosebushes that his mother used to hire a gardener to tend to until Samantha vanished and she lost interest in almost everything around her.

She liked seeing him like this, carefree and happy. After everything that they had been through and considering the darkness that they both still fight together on a daily basis, moments like these when they can be young, happy and in love were precious.

"It might if you weren't so damn loud, Mulder", Scully said with a small hint of a smile, looping her arm through his as they headed for the tin pot of a car Scully had saved up her wages from her summer job the previous year to buy.

It was a rare occasion but his father was home tonight, and even if they both knew that Bill Mulder wouldn't give a damn if his son was out after midnight, Scully would prefer if no one knew where they were off to.

Her bedroom was their usual go to place, what with her sister away at college for the majority of the year. However with the summer holidays so close, the Scully house was jam packed with people between Scully's three siblings either visiting or home from college, her parents, her father's Naval buddies who visit regularly when they come back from being away at sea, her eldest brother Bill's new girlfriend Tara and a handful of aunts and cousins that come and go.

Mulder's house, on the other hand, had too many bad memories for both of them. It was the place where Samantha had been taken and where they had both lost their childhood innocence forever...not exactly an ideal place to spend the night of their senior prom, a prom neither of them had the slightest interest in attending.

Mulder and Scully rarely hung out there anymore despite the fact that they could almost guarantee having the whole place to themselves.

Since the divorce three years ago, Teena Mulder had moved out to Connecticut to be closer to her sister and her family. She seemed a little happier and a little less like the broken woman that Mulder remembered on the few occasions he had spoken to her on the phone in the last few weeks.

Bill Mulder, on the other hand, who still lived in Martha's Vineyard was away, more often than not, on trips for his mysterious government job that he wouldn't give anyone (especially Mulder and Scully) details on no matter how persistent they were.

There was often meetings that went on late into the night in their house and Bill Mulder insisted that both his son and his son's best friend kept well out of his and his suit wearing and cigarette smoking colleagues way.

Mulder knew he could be angry with both of his parents, but had made peace with their distance given the knowledge that they were just trying to distract themselves from the loss of Samantha.

He probably reminded them too much of her, just as they reminded him.

He could forgive them for their distance but Scully couldn't, as she often told him when she and her mother came by on the regular occasion that the house was completely empty, save for Mulder himself.

Stubborn as they were, the two Scully women got around him to come back with them for dinner after finding a sizable amount of proof that he wasn't looking after himself.

Proof in the shape of Hostess apple pie wrappers, sunflower-seed shells and half eaten bowels of cereal practically on every flat surface. Not to mention, the empty kitchen cupboards and the mess of books (many of which were about non-fiction serial killer cases, freak abductions and alien conspiracies—'No wonder you can't sleep', Mrs Scully always told him when she saw his reading material, tutting over him like a mother hen while Scully herself threw him an apologetic look. Even if her mother didn't get it, she did.)

There was also normally a heap of dirty and sweaty clothes that had been dumped beside the living room sofa that Mulder dozed off in when his insomnia (which he had only recently been officially diagnosed with) was at its worst.

They wouldn't think about any of that now though, despite everything that had gone wrong in their still quite short lives and despite all the shit they had already been through together, they were still two young people in love and on the cusp of adulthood.

Tonight was their night off tragedy, weirdness and things still to be explained.

Scully slid into the driver's seat, tying her hair out of the way into a loose ponytail at the nape of her neck and turned to Mulder who was riding shotgun. "So whatcha got?", she asked teasingly, eyeing the drawstring bag he had brought with him.

They may not have been the type to go dressing up for prom (a prom where they liked nobody and nobody liked them), but they sure as hell were going to mark the end of their high school years in some way (despite how crappy they had been), namely with some alcohol and a night time trip to the beach.

Mulder grinned mischievously, tossing his best friend/girlfriend the aforementioned bag. "We've got some junk food, some music, a blanket and some booze."

Scully grinned widely after a quick peek in the bag, satisfied with what Mulder had brought along. She felt her stomach squirm, half with nerves and half with excitement, at the surprise of her own that she had in store for him later.

"You know Ahab would forcibly enlist you if he found out that you were trying to get his youngest daughter drunk, right?", she asked teasingly, sliding the key into the ignition as she tossed the bag of goodies back on to his lap. "After he had gotten over the shock of course."

Chuckling darkly, Mulder took her hand from where it was on the gearstick, kissing the inside of her wrist. "Surely you're parents know after thirteen years of being us being joined at the hip that I'm a bad influence."

Scully rolled her eyes as she began to reverse her car out of the driveway into the empty moonlit street behind them. "Mulder, you know just as well as I do that my parents, my mother in particular, think you're a saint. If anything you make me look bad when you're around them."

Mulder smiled sheepishly, shrugging. There was definitely no love lost between him and Scully's mom and dad considering how it sometimes felt as though they cared more about him than his own parents did.

On the other hand however, the idea of him making her look bad was probably a bit of an overstatement since both Mulder's parents and Scully's had gotten their fair share of letters and phone calls phone about their children's misadventures together ever since their meeting on the first day of kindergarten. They had been inseparable ever since, together through everything.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

 _..._

 _And all the roads we have to walk are winding_

 _And all the lights that lead us there are blinding_

 _There are many things that I would like to say to you_

 _But I don't know how (don't know how)_

 _Because maybe you're gonna be the one that saves me_

 _And after all, you're my wonderwall._

 _~Wonderwall , Oasis_

 _..._


	2. Chapter 2

**Iris: Chapter 2**

….

 _Backbeat, the word was on the street_

 _That the fire in your heart is out_

 _I'm sure you've heard it all before_

 _But you never really had a doubt_

 _I don't believe that anybody_

 _Feels the way I do about you now_

 _..._

…

Lambert's Cove

West Tisbury

Martha's Vineyard

Summer of 1979

…

The moon was turned, crescent shaped, on its rear end. The sand and sea was bathed in silver, transformed by light. They lay under the stars, which were like a beautiful, surreal blanket above their heads, reflected into the water like millions of little fireflies.

"Cassiopeia, right?"

"Mmmh, and there's Ursa Minor."

"And Ursa Major."

Scully could feel Mulder's heartbeat against her upper back. Strong, steady and calming. He gently held her body against his from behind, only moving every so often when it was his turn to point out another constellation. Mulder could hear her soft breaths and feel her diaphragm rise and fall beneath his arms. Peaceful, constant, soothing, anchoring, a balm to their troubled young souls.

"Andromeda".

"It is not. That's clearly Sagittarius, look at the four stars on the left"

"Hell no."

"Sure . Fine. Whatever. Be wrong. I don't care"

"Alright then, I will."

It had become a game of sorts between them years ago, to outdo each other with their knowledge of the stars. Mulder always had an fascination with all things space related, and Scully had heard her fair share of folklore from Ahab.

"Ancient people must have felt really enlightened, Scully", Mulder commented randomly after a few minutes of silence. "After spending only a short while looking up, I already feel as though the whole universe of answers are open to me. Imagine how they felt?".

Scully smirked teasingly. "Enlightened?", she asked him, eyebrows raised. "Maybe they just had far too much time on their hands, turning what they saw in the sky into stories about their heroes and gods. Stars are just massive balls of plasma and gas held together by their own gravity, that replenishes the heat it looses to space by means of nuclear energy generated in its core."

"What can I say?". Mulder chuckled into her titan hair, his hazel eyes alight as he held her tighter to him. He pecked her chastely on the temple. "That was hot, Miss Physics Undergrad", he flirted, eyes shining mischievously.

Scully rolled her eyes. "I can recite the entire periodic table too if that sort of thing gets you off", she bit back jokingly, snuggling further into him.

Mulder let out a loud bark of laughter that could probably have been heard up on the promenade had anyone been passing by at that late hour. "What would you say if I gave you a detailed analysis of every publicly know case of spontaneous human combustion since Nicole Millet, a Parisian innkeeper's wife, in 1725?".

Scully snorted, looking up at him over her shoulder with a joking smile. "I'd say that you know where my interests lie, Spooky?", she responded with the same over the top seductive tone he had used before, gaining another laugh from her boyfriend/best friend.

They were quite for a while, enjoying each others company and the sounds and briny aromas of the sea. It was one of the things Mulder enjoyed most about his relationship with Scully, silence between them never felt awkward.

The stars winked above them like glittering sequins.

Despite what Scully had said about the stars just being big lumps of luminous junk, it seemed to Mulder that they held the secrets of the universe in their crystalline depths. How much they had seen. What mysteries were put there to be uncovered.

After six years, Mulder was starving for the truth behind Sam's disappearance. The weight of that night's events still hung heavy on his shoulders.

His little sister had shouted for him to help her and he wasn't able to do anything to save her.

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves. We are the underlings", he whispered sombrely, not looking at Scully but up into the sky. He barely noticed as the line from Julius Caesar rolled off of his tongue.

Scully could hear the change in Mulder's voice, sense the muscles tense in his back and forearms. She turned around in his embrace until she was sitting on her calves between his legs, facing him straight on.

He wore that far away look that Scully knew meant he was thinking of Samantha. She reached out to cup Mulder's jaws, anchoring him in the chaotic sea that she knew his thought sometimes were.

Samantha would be fourteen now, wherever she was.

Despite how Scully struggled with many of the concepts studied at Sunday school, she prayed for the little girl often, prayed that wherever she was; she wasn't in pain. She prayed that she was still alive and prayed that they would one day find her.

Scully worried for Mulder. She knew that he blamed himself on some level for Samantha's disappearance. She knew his little sister's screams for help still plagued his dreams, partially becoming the reason behind his oftentimes quite aggressive insomnia.

If she was being honest, Scully could still hear Samantha's frantic pleas for help as though it were yesterday herself.

"That's not true and you know it, Mulder", Scully told him, her voice sounding a little stern but her cerulean blue eyes him showing nothing but complete concern. "I would blame the stars or fate or whatever the hell else a thousand times before you and I'm certain that wherever Samantha is, she would tell you exactly the same. What happened was no more your fault than anyone else's."

Mulder looked directly at her, seeing nothing but honesty and devotion in her eyes.

No one could pull him from his own thoughts like Scully. All the fancy shrinks that his parents had hired over the years to help him deal with Samantha's disappearance had been useless.

Scully was the only one who helped him keep the darkness at bay. The only one he trusted. His one in five billion. There was no one he loved more than her, there never would be. While many others their age fell in young and immature love that would be a distant memory in a few years, they loved each other down to their very souls and knew each other better than anyone.

He swallowed the lump of guilt and grief in his throat and tried to argue.

"But Scu—", he began but she shushed him with a single finger over his pouty lips.

"Mulder it wasn't your fault. None of it. And one day, we'll find her and find out exactly who...or what", she added albeit reluctantly, still not quite able to explain those weird lights that they had seen that night six years ago. "took her".

Mulder reached up, caressing her face gently with his fingertips as the darkness once again receded, leaving him feeling a little drained. "Thank you, Scully", he breathed, nearing her until their faces were not far from touching. "I don't know where I'd be without you."

Some day, they would find out exactly what happened that night back in '73 and for now they would have to be content as they were and live in the moment.

"I love you", he said gently, lightly thumbing her bottom lip. "You know that right?".

Nodding, Scully leaned towards him as though there was a gravitational pull between them. "And I love you", she said sealing the deal as their lips collided, tasting beer, fresh air and sea salt. He eagerly responded, giving back just as much as he was getting.

Scully felt her stomach do a little flip-flop and fill with warmth as Mulder tugged her closer to him so that she was properly seated on his lap, her thighs straddling his waist. Moaning in appreciation, she balled up the material of his sweatshirt with her left fist while her right hand found its way into his floppy brown tresses.

Mulder hummed in appreciation, teasing the seams of her lips open with the tip of his tongue, pleading for the entrance that she eagerly gave. She met him in full on in the middle in their battle for dominance. She kissed him and the world fell away. It was slow and soft, comforting in a way that words could never be before growing into a frenzy, cold fingers roaming under warm sweaters and jackets and threading through already windswept hair.

Breath-taking.

They pulled back, staring at each other. Their eyes said more than words could ever hope to convey.

With pupils dilated, Scully could see lust and desire burn in the hazel of his irises and knew that her's must mirror back the same emotions.

After all, she could feel it deep down inside, a hunger she hadn't ever felt before in all of her seventeen and a half years.

"I'll always be here, Mulder", she told him, her voice still a little breathless as she revisited a promise that she had made him lying on his bedroom floor years ago. He'd never have to face the future alone, not as long as she was by his side.

Mulder smiled, his hand rested below her ear, his thumb caressing her cheek as their warm breaths, shallow from kissing, mingle in the humid salty night-time breeze.

"I know, Scully. And for what it's worth, so will I. I'll always watch your six", he vowed, placing a single open mouthed kiss to her collarbone, trailing his lips reverently up her neck.

Scully shivered, letting out a quiet moan despite herself as his teeth toyed with her earlobe, nipping and sucking. She ran her fingers down his spine, pulling him closer until there was no space left between them and she could feel his heart thump passionately against her chest.

Feeling a little bold, she took the plunge and crossed more barriers than they had before, rubbing her pelvis hard against his, enjoying the friction between their needy centres.

Mulder groaned loudly, as sound that awoke up something primal inside of her. The same need she could see so clearly reflected in the eyes of the boy who had been her best friend for nearly thirteen years. The same throbbing need she could feel in his errection, pressed hard up against where she wanted him the most.

Clearly he felt the same way.

Without another thought, she reached for the hem of his sweatshirt. She tugged it over his head in one swift motion, taking the t-shirt underneath right along with it.

Scully smiled in appreciation, eyeing his nicely toned and nicely tanned upper body affectionately. She gently let her hands roam across the planes of his recently broadened chest. "You're beautiful", she confessed not knowing she had spoken aloud until the words had already left her mouth.

She smiled unapologetically.

It wasn't as though it was the first time she saw him shirtless, far from it considering how they had lived so close to the beach all their lives. But this was the first time she could truly look at him without the inkling feeling that she should be embarrassed about it.

Mulder peered down at her curiously, sitting back a little so they weren't quite as close. He pushed his raging teenaged hormones aside for a moment, his concern for her overriding the straining he felt beneath his jeans and his nearly overwhelming urge to even up their level of undressed-ness.

"Are you sure?", he whispered huskily. He knew her well enough to see where this might be going.

Her blue eyes had never been this close to navy. Her body had never felt so warm and appeared so flushed in his arms. She had never looked at him with that lidded predatory gaze before.

Yes, he and Scully had been dating for almost a year but never had things gotten this heated between them. The prospect of her very catholic parents downstairs had always seen to that.

Scully smiled softly, endeared he had asked even though she had been the one who had just rid him of nearly half his clothes. "I'm sure, Mulder", she promised, reaching into the pocket of her leather jacket, procuring a little foil package that she had taken from the box buried deep in her nightstand that Melissa had given her ages ago.

They both knew what that was.

Mulder smiled, deciding it best not to joke with her about having condoms on hand right now—he'd save that one for a teasing whisper in her ear later.

If he was honest, the thought of her being this presumptuous turned him on even more.

So this time, it was Mulder who reached down, taking her upper lip possessively between both of his, tasting anticipation as he pushed her jacket off of her shoulders and slid her NASA t-shirt over her head.

Breaking away for a second, Mulder caught sight of her. "You're stunning", he whispered, his voice coming deep up from his throat, a tone that sent little sparks blazing in her stomach and...lower.

Scully smiled, taking stock of how adorable he looked right now, how his eyes were filled with amazement but darkened slightly by physical hunger.

He wanted her just as badly as she did him, there was no hiding it.

Mulder watched her, his eyes alight as he committed every inch of her porcelain skin and rounded breasts, covered partially with a black lace bra, to his photographic memory. She was more beautiful than he had ever thought possible.

"Get over here, Scully", he growled affectionately, barely able to contain himself any longer.

Scully smiled mischievously, reaching for him, because neither could she.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

...

A Few Miles West of The Mulder Family Residence

Chilmark

Martha's Vineyard

Summer of '79

...

They were silent on the drive home, blissfully lost in the thought, recalling what had happened between them detail by detail.

Every so often one of them would turn to the other, sharing a secret smile.

She smirked softly, endeared as she recalled Mulder's look of concentration (and later frustration) as he struggled to unclasp her bra, a feat that she eventually, and through her unsurpassable giggles, had to give him a little help with.

Picturing the funnier more awkward moments kept her from flushing at the memory of the...other moments then had shared.

Scully couldn't tear herself from the feeling of having him inside her (it had been sore at first, just as she had suspected, and neither of them had really known what to do until their instincts kicked in. But it got better. Much better) or from the image of him looking up at her, quite smug, from between her thighs after she had come down from the first real high of her life. A sheen on his chin and a weirdly arousing tangy taste in his mouth as he came up to kiss her softly and reverently, a total contradiction to the burning passion she saw in his eyes and felt in his needy thrusts.

She ducked away from him back towards the road, hiding her blush as her toes curled in her combat boots. Mulder smirked lovingly, unable to hide the permanent grin on his face (right then it felt like he would have trouble trying to wipe that smile off for days!).

Mulder knew exactly what she was thinking about, because he was thinking of the same things.

The sound of her moans. The way her body froze in his arms before she came. The way she guided him towards her for the release they both had craved.

Mulder could still hear her voice, assuring him that he could go faster and harder, promising him that he wouldn't break her and that she wasn't made of glass. Telling him to let go...and holy shit did it feel incredible when he did. The mere thought made Mulder Jr stir in his denim jeans.

It hadn't lasted too long, their first time, but they made certain both of them were satisfied...at least for the time being anyway.

Glancing over at his best friend again, Mulder couldn't help but feel a little proud as he watched her try and focus on the road ahead, a small smile playing about her lips and her Irish complexion doing nothing to hide her flush. A scarlet bruise stood out on her neck, a love bite that Mulder had put there in the throes of passion when he had discovered a particularly sensitive spot.

Just then, they pulled into the driveway that went up to Mulder's house, immediately spotting the front courtyard was packed out with a half dozen jet black sedans.

His father's work colleagues.

"Did you know there was a meeting on tonight?", Scully asked, taking the car out of gear and turning off the ignition after she pulled in behind one of the aforementioned cars.

Even though, Mr Mulder's colleagues were nearly always around, especially in the summer time, Scully never found herself warming to any of them. In fact they made her feel pretty was one, she wasn't sure of his name and neither was Mulder, who's gaze often lingered on her for a little too long. His face was lined from a lifetime of smoking and even though Scully supposed that he was about the same age as her and Mulder's parents, he looked quite a bit older.

Scully always considered herself a rational person, but damn did he give her the creeps.

Mulder shrugged, "Dad has meetings on nearly every night. Whatever they're up to, it's something important". He looked inquisitively at the front window of his house again, catching the shadows of several men inside. "They don't usually have the meetings here though."

As children, Mulder and Scully had often come up with elaborate stories about what secret work his father may do for the government. Ten year old Scully had imagined the whole thing was something to do with secret American war efforts against the Russians to keep them ahead in the cold war, while Mulder's imagination was something more along the supernatural lines. "It's definitely something to do with Area 51", he told her almost constantly back in those days, when things were easier.

Shortly after that when Bill Mulder had realized that his work had become a frequent topic of conversation between the two kids, he had made absolute certain that both of them were as far as possible when he had meetings with his colleagues, even going as a far as letting The Scully's know about their daughter's behavior with a phone call.

There had been a lot of hushed voices between her parents that night and to this day Scully didn't know what Mr Mulder had said to her father.

"The government has a right to keep secrets, Starbuck", Ahab had told her that evening after he had gotten off the phone with Bill Mulder, a warm calloused hand on her little shoulder and a quietly firm look in his eyes that told a ten year old Scully that her father trusted her to do what was right. "I want you to keep yourself and Fox safe and out of anything you shouldn't be getting yourselves into, you hear me?".

She had nodded and kept her curiosity under wraps after that night.

"Wanna go inside and have a listen?", Mulder asked her, an excited expression on his face. It had been quite a while since they had an opportunity this good to do a little investigating. Suddenly, it was like they were ten years old all over again.

Scully thought about it for a moment. She knew it was probably a bad idea to go in, but her stomach was full with anticipation and she sure as hell wouldn't let Mulder go alone.

"Mulder, it's a bad idea. We could get caught", she argued, immediately remembering what her father had said years ago, remembering those funny looks that she was always on the receiving end of from Mr Mulder's cigarette smoking colleague.

Her rational side screamed at her just to get both of them out of here before they heard or saw something that they shouldn't have.

But despite everything, the eager look on Mulder's face got under her skin and the words of Albert Einstein rang through in her mind, 'The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing'

She wanted to know too...just as much as Mulder did.

"Scully, we won't get caught. Dad is usually gone away for meeting for days at a time. This one won't be over for hours", his eyes were wide, reminding her of a much younger version of him. Scully felt her resolve slipping.

" _Logically_ no one will notice us listening for a few minutes", Mulder added hopefully, knowing her well enough to convince her with rationalism.

Damn him for going all logical on her...why couldn't he have just said that they should go in there and blend in dressed as full blown gray skinned reticulans. (It was something he had half jokingly said you her when they were little, attempting to convince her that his father's work colleagues were aliens in disguise)

Then she could have driven them away with no regrets.

Scully sighed, suppressing her own smile of excitement. "Alright but just a few minutes."

Mulder whooped, hurrying out of her car.

 _..._

 _And all the roads we have to walk are winding_

 _And all the lights that lead us there are blinding_

 _There are many things that I_

 _Would like to say to you but I don't know how_

 _Because maybe, you're gonna be the one that saves me_

 _And after all, you're my wonderwall_

 _….._


	3. Chapter 3

**Iris: Chapter 3**

 _..._

 _Today was gonna be the day_

 _But they'll never throw it back to you,_

 _By now you should have somehow_

 _Realised what you're not to do._

 _I don't believe that anybody_

 _Feels the way I do about you now_

 _~Oasis, Wonderwall._

 _..._

...

The Mulder Family Residence

Chilmark

Martha's Vineyard

Summer of 1979

...

They tread lightly on the carpet as they walked through the front door despite how they both knew that nobody would be listening for them coming.

The hallway smelled of smoke, as it nearly always did during and after the visits of Mr Mulder's colleagues, almost as though the house inhaled the scent of tobacco into its very pores, not to be completely shed for quite a few days after the men had left.

The incoherent sounds of talking echoed from the study at the opposite side of the house. Scully wasn't sure what they were saying and a glance up at Mulder's equally blank expression told her that he was as much in the dark as she was.

They didn't turn on any lights and approached the sounds of men talking in almost complete darkness, the moon bathed a soft silvery light across the corridor and Mulder was in in the lead to the door. Scully, who felt a little uneasy about listening in on what was a private meeting, followed him nonetheless.

If he was determined to find out more about what was going on, she wasn't going to let him face the threat of getting caught alone.

As they neared the study door, the smell of tobacco getting stronger, the voices of the men at the other side became clearer to make out. They caught wisps of conversation, nothing woefully coherent. Something about experiments, the Naval Base only a few miles outside Chilmark and some wider plan.

Desperate to hear more, Mulder was the first to get there and he immediately moved to press his ear to the door, smiling for a moment until heard a familiar voice from the other side, a voice that sounded like hard metal and rough gravel, a voice that was usually accompanied with a large pungent puff of cigarette smoke on the now and again occasion when the man who that voice belonged to had dinner with Mulder and his father or back year ago when he had come around to talk to Mulder's mother.

"We have sacrificed a great deal for this cause and we now need to reassess our role in the plan for colonisation and what that will mean for our remaining family members and for the project going forward."

Mulder's face dropped, his mind rushing to conclusions on what that could mean. 'REMAINING Family members? SACRIFICES MADE? Surely this could have nothing to do with Samantha's disappearance?'.

His blood ran cold at the thought and his mind spun into a frenzy, clicking some of the mysteries of his parents behaviour over the past six years together.

Like how his mother hadn't really argued with his father in the same way as they had before, leaving just an icy indifference between them rather than the outright anger of earlier years.

His father had also taken to drinking heavily, at least when he wasn't preparing for meetings, almost inexplicably after Samantha had disappeared. Bill never wanted to speak of Samantha, neither of Mulder's parents did, but Mulder always assumed if was because the were still in pain over the ordeal.

They had been grieving surely, Mulder had never even suspected guilt as a plausible alternative.

He didn't want to believe it.

But in spite of everything, he stayed right where he was, frozen at the door with his ear pressed firmly against the wood, hoping for even a little bit of what may be the truth.

At the look on his face, Scully could feel her heart pounding in her ears. She clenched her fists tight together, almost to the point of pain, and squeezed her body between Mulder's and the door so that he was leaning over her to listen.

Her palms felt clammy and Mulder was frozen behind her in a look that was something between horror, anger and desperation. His eyes were distant as though his mind was far away, possibly trying to make sense of whatever he was hearing.

Should they really be doing this?

Scully knew there was no turning back now, so pushing her ear hard against the cool timber of the door, she was careful not to make any noise, God forbid they alert anyone at the other side of the door of their presence.

She knew she shouldn't be here, leaving aside even her father's eight year old warning totally, a part of Scully did want to believe in the government doing the right thing despite Mulder's beliefs that his father's work colleagues were sketchy, the same part of her who put on her golden cross necklace every morning and studied hours into the night.

But she was here, with Mulder, because she couldn't let him go alone. And even if a few of those old guys made her feel a little unnerved on the odd occasion she bumped into them, she damn well wasn't scared of a bunch of fifty something year old chain smokers and they wouldn't stop her from standing by Mulder.

"We can't keep doing this, it's human experimentation...on young girls no less", a voice with quite a strong British accent argued. "Are you sure what the colonisers want really is for the best?"

Scully felt her stomach drop at his words. Surely this couldn't be real?! Bearing in mind her own years studying history at school, growing up with Fox Mulder and the very rare comment from Ahab, Scully had always known that the government wasn't always very truthful, but she had never deemed they outrightly untrustworthy as Mulder always had.

The same cold derisive voice from earlier spoke up again, a strong air of authority in his voice. "We all have lost loved ones for the good of this project. We knew what sacrifices we were making as soon as a family member was chosen to be taken. If you really feel so strongly against our methods and the methods of the colonisers, the door is open for you to leave."

There was no sound of shuffling inside the room and a stillness passed over the house. Apparently, none of them felt strongly enough to leave after all. Not even from Bill Mulder.

If everything that they were saying really was true, Mulder expected better from his father, a man he had trusted despite their differences. Had he really given up Samantha to whatever project they were making plans for.

Scully felt sick as the reality of what Bill Mulder's colleague was implying truly hit her.

Surely that man hadn't said what she just thought he had said. It went against everything that she had come to believe about the rights of people living in their country.

It made her question one of her old Sunday school curiosities as a child, something she had pondered over time and time again when she thought about how little Samantha Mulder had been robbed from her family.

How much evil there was out there in the world? And how do you recognise it?

Because if anything was evil, the actions of those men were.

Scully was pulled from her thoughts by Mulder. His form felt tense behind her. She could feel the contraction of his muscles and his heart pounding against her left shoulder blade.

Turning to face him, Scully saw a sense of anger and hurt that she hadn't seen before in him. She leaned back against the door, reaching up to grasp his face in her hands in some attempt to ground him.

They had no real proof that anything Mr Mulder's colleagues were discussing was factual. They had nothing tangible to hold on to but a few words heard through a closed study door.

Perhaps they had taken things up the wrong way? Perhaps this whole situation had absolutely nothing to do with Samantha's disappearance? Perhaps it really had been just a tragic coincidence.

She wasn't convinced but believing they needed more evidence was easier than accepting more extreme possibilities.

Scully knew Mulder better than anyone and she knew where his paranoid thoughts were leading him to right now, the same place she had just been dragging her thoughts from with the comfort of her own rationalism.

As always, she was going to do her damnedest to pull him back to the safety of definite reality.

"Mulder, this mightn't be what it seems", Scully tried in an attempt to assure herself as much as him, afraid to accept what she knew from Mulder intense gaze he already believed. "We've no proof that Sam—", she began but he cut her off, his voice a mixture of devastation and rage.

"Scully", Mulder said aghast, voice just about breaking out of a whisper and getting increasingly louder. "I can't believe this! I won't believe this! It's sick!", he said trying to get past her to open the door, no longer caring about not being found eavesdropping. "What they are doing, it's sick and wrong and...", he said voice cracking slightly as his emotions broke through. "It explains what happened to Sam."

In that moment, all he wanted to do was give his father and those men a piece of his mind and tell them what sadistic bastards they all are if they truly are condoning human experimentation on young girls.

Scully held on to him, one hand at the nape of his neck the other on her cheek. He didn't let go or pull away, for that Scully was relieved. They were both too damn good at bottling up their emotions from the outside world, but surely at this point they should know better than to hide from each other. "Mulder", Scully tried once again. "We don't know that, we have no evidence of anyth-."

Suddenly the voices stopped whatever conversation they were having, Mulder and Scully turned towards the door in panic, like deer caught in the headlights.

Scully's words fade off of the tip of her tongue and Mulder glances between her and the door, anger still eating away in the pit of his stomach despite how the rational part of his brain was catching up with him.

If he went making accusations now without any evidence beyond the conversation they had overheard, he would just be landing himself and Scully in a greater mess than they were already in.

A silent understanding passes between them, they would deal with this later, and they both fall silent, listening intently.

The silence at the other side of the door was deafening until...

"Do you hear something out there?", a voice that sounded faintly Russian asked.

In response, a voice neither Mulder or Scully were familiar with spoke up (clearly he didn't come around too often). "I'll go and take a look.", he said and the sound of footsteps crossing the floor echoed almost like it would in some crazy action or horror movie.

The two teenagers looked to each other in panic...oh shit. They weren't going to make it back down the hallway and out of the house without being found out that was for sure. That and they were both pretty damn certain that nobody but those invited to the meeting were supposed to have heard any of what they had heard.

"Mulder", Scully whispered firmly, pushing him hard on the shoulders away from the door until they had stumbled their way into the wall a few feet away.

As though every sound around them had been amplified by ten, they heard the handle of the study door press down, the ringing sound of the springs inside the handle cutting through the tense atmosphere.

Scully assessed their possible options quickly. They could try and make a run for it and inevitably get caught. They could own up to everything they had heard and then gods knows what would happen (if Samantha's abduction really had something to do with all of this who wasn't to say something might happen to her or Mulder if the wrong people found out that they knew).

The outcomes looked pretty bleak, unless...they pretend that they had been too busy to hear anything...

Mulder found himself completely at a loss of what to do, already finding himself feeling guilty for dragging his best friend into such a situation, until Scully grabbed him roughly by the jaws, tugging him down to her level and pressing her lips hard against his. He grabbed on to her hips and responded in confusion.

Why on earth was she kissing him now?!

The man coughed awkwardly, the study door now wide open.

Scully pulled away from a slightly dazed looking Mulder, his panic at getting the pair of them caught eavesdropping, his anger and feeling of betrayal towards his father and the recent surprise of Scully launching herself on him in such a weird situation all still evident on his face.

He looked glanced down at Scully, who looked up at him with her eyebrows raised slightly, giving him a pointed look as if to say 'Go with me on this Mulder. We have to keep ourselves safe', before looking up to make eye contact with the man before them.

He was tall, but not quite as tall as Mulder himself, had almost black curly hair and tired eyes. "You kids aren't supposed to be here right now", he commented firmly, his voice tough but his eyes giving away that he knew that they had been listening.

Something about him told Mulder that he wouldn't tell on them though.

Mulder kept quiet, not sure whether to punch the guy for being involved in whatever sick kind of project that was apparently going on or to just smile mischievously and play along with Scully's apparent plan to look like two horny as hell teenagers (which wouldn't have been a lie less hand half an hour ago) to get them away from trouble.

(Which, he had to admit, had been quite good thinking on her part. He knew he wouldn't have thought of it).

Scully, on the other hand, played it off quite well, turning around to face the man. Her cheeks were pink, feigning embarrassment and she cocked a half smile. "I'm sorry", she said, eyes darting away from the almost middle aged guy in what would have been a sheepish fashion if Mulder hadn't seen the slight glint in her eye. She wiped her lips purposefully with the back of her hand. "We'll get out of your way."

She took Mulder's hand and began pulling him in the direction of the door, damn proud she had got them out of this one. "C'mon, Mulder."

Despite the bizarreness of the past few minutes, Mulder looked down at her in amazement, he didn't know she was that good an actress. After thirteen years as best friends, she was still surprising him and getting them both out of trouble.

He forced a sheepish smile at the other man as he and Scully made their way towards the door, knowing the smile didn't meet his eyes but hoping he had, somewhat at least, played his part well enough to keep Scully out of this crazy situation.

The dark curled haired man watched them go. He was pretty sure that those two has been listening to every word that was going on in the meeting if Bill Mulder's son's reaction was anything to go by.

He was also certain that the kid probably would have stormed right into the study to take someone out if the girl hadn't been there to talk, or rather kiss, some sense into him.

Deep Throat ducked back into the room, shutting the door behind him. He was certain that it wouldn't be the last he would see or hear of Bill Mulder's son and his little red haired friend.

...

And all the roads we have to walk are winding

And all the lights that lead us there are blinding

There are many things that I

Would like to say to you but I don't know how

Because maybe, you're gonna be the one that saves me

And after all, you're my wonderwall

~Wonderwall, Oasis

...

* * *

 **Hiya Guys! Hope you are all in good form. So sorry this update was late, I was busy with personal stuff but I'm back writing now. The next chapter is already mostly written so it will be up soon. Please leave a review and tell me if you liked this chapter or if you hated it well...you can tell me that too :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Iris: Chapter 4**

 _..._

 _Sleep on me, feel the rhythm in my chest, just breathe._

 _I will stay, so the lantern in your heart won't fade._

 _The secrets you tell me, I'll take to my grave._

 _There's bones in my closet but you hang stuff anyway._

 _And if you have nightmares, we'll dance on the bed._

 _I know that you'll love me, love me, even when I loose my head...Guillotine._

 _~Jon Bellion, Guillotine._

 _..._

 _..._

Minutes from The Scully Family Residence

Chilmark

Martha's Vineyard

Summer of 1979

...

Mulder didn't hear much of anything that Scully said to him on the way back to her house.

It sounded like she was warning him to keep his head down until they knew something more. She had even suggested they go to the authorities on the off chance that the meeting they had overheard had absolutely nothing to do with the government in the first place and the group in the study, Bill Mulder included, were part of some kind of cult or terrorist organisation.

That was when Mulder started tuning her out, resolving to going over every little detail of what they had heard in his mind in search of where to begin some kind of investigation.

Sometimes he wondered if his mind was an engine or an exhaust. Was he the master of his thoughts or are his ideas the result of the deep thinking he is only loosely aware of?

His head was spinning with every word, every syllable, every constant, every variable that he had heard. '...we knew what sacrifices that were to be made...' '...what this means for the project...' '...Chilmark Naval Base...' '...as soon as a family member was chosen to be taken...' '...human experimentation...'

It all lead back to one thing...

Samantha

Samantha

Samantha

Scully glanced momentarily away from the road, falling silent when she saw Mulder. She knew him well enough to know that the possibility that his father had been involved in the abduction of his sister had rocked Mulder to his very core.

Scully squeezed his finger quietly as they pulled into the small yard in front of her house. She took the car out of gear and took the keys from the ignition, turning to face Mulder.

Holding one of his hands in her lap, she spoke up, her voice laced in concern. "Mulder, talk to me?".

Mulder faced her for the first time since they left his house. He looked as though he were about to cry but was desperately trying to hold himself together, trying to stop the sobs from ripping trough his muscles, bones and guts. He suddenly felt the walls that hold him up, make him strong, just collapse...

Scully's compassion was the bridge, it just took time to trust his weight to it. She extended her hand and stayed while he showed her the scars, the mess, the fear.

It has always been like this, ever since Samantha disappeared. But he couldn't let Scully get hurt while he took possibly dangerous risks to find out what happened to his sister.

"You know you don't have hide things from me, right?", Scully said, honestly even though it wasn't very like either of them to talk about their feelings. They never had been, even as kids. They had both always been strong believers of the phrase' actions speak louder than words'. "I'm here, Mulder. I always have been", she promised.

It hurt to see him like this, it hurt because Mulder had always felt like an integral part of herself that she just so happened to carry with her outside her own body.

Seeing him like this, she could feel his desperation, his devastation and his betrayal but she'd be damned if she would let him down anything foolish. She couldn't let him.

She couldn't loose him.

"I have to check out that Naval Base, Scully and I have to do it alone", Mulder replied simply unpassionately, completely ignoring her previous words. He looked away from her, out into the night, in an attempt to avoid meeting her eye.

Scully looked at him slightly shocked, irritation setting in in place of where her empathy was. Of course he was going to try something ridiculous, she should have expected an answer like this one.

(Honestly though, it didn't make it any easier to accept)

Scully knew just as much about local Navy Bases as most Navy brats did and was damn well certain that parts of the Chilmark Naval Base had top security at their entrances.

"Are you crazy, Mulder? You could get shot for breaking in there!", she replied firmly, letting go of him. "There's twenty four hour security on all of the entrances and exits. There's not a hope that you'll get in and out of there alive", she finished, voicing coming to an angry crescendo.

Mulder shrugged self-deprecatingly, his hazel eyes sad but determined, the bluey-green shades in their brown depths becoming extra pronounced. "My mother left completely without looking back and my father was apparently fine with my eight year old sister being taken and experimented on. I don't think anyone would give a damn if I did get shot ."

Scully glared at him, her eyes becoming fire. "Don't you dare say that to me, Fox William Mulder. I care about you. I've always cared about you. We've known for YEARS that your parents don't give a fuck what happens to you, but you still have me, you still have the memory of your sister, you still have the possibility of finding her and you still have yourself. That should be enough!", and with that Scully stormed away, slamming the car door behind her and practically sprinted up the front steps.

Anything to get away from him right now.

She fumbled with the house key to unlock the door, her hands still shaking with anger while Mulder jumped out of the car to keep up with her.

"Scully", Mulder said, halfway up the same front steps that Scully had taken in one despite her short stature. "I have to go. If there's a chance I'll find Sam or figure out what happened to her, I'm willing to take the risk. If it was Melissa or Bill or Charlie, wouldn't you?"

Scully turned to face him stubbornly, arms crossed across her chest, the door remaining unlocked. She eyed him with a steely glaze, she wasn't relenting. Even if Mulder was pigheadedly putting himself in danger, she wasn't going to let him ditch her.

"I'm going with you then."

Mulder joined her on the porch, placing a hand on it's usual spot on her lower back. "You don't get it, Scully. I couldn't let you risk your life on this", he said voice desperate, eyes pleading with her to understand.

She wouldn't look at him, so he spoke over her shoulder, the smell the sea from her hair filling his lungs, reminding him of how much easier their lives had been barely an hour ago.

Scully pulled away from him.

Mulder continued, his voice getting louder, frustration taking over. "You're too important, Scully. If anything happened to me, you would be sad for a while, yes. But you have your family and you would be able to make other friends. You would be fine", he said deeply, squeezing her gently on the hip.

"It's different for me, you're the only family I have, the only friend I have. I can't let anything happen to you too", by the time he finished, he was shouting almost as loud as Scully had been a few moments before in the car.

Scully whirled around to face him. "No Mulder", she responded hotly, pointing at him accusingly with her index finger. Her eyes were bloodshot and brimming with tears. "You don't get it. I feel exactly the same way. You mean the wor-", she started angrily, but glanced upwards.

The light of her parents room upstairs flickered on. They had obviously woken up both, or at least one, of Scully's parents.

"Absolutely perfect", Scully groaned, unlocking the door and glaring up at Mulder at they entered they house. "Well done", she said sarcastically, awaiting whatever inquisition they would inevitably receive from her mom and dad for rambling in at all hours of the night.

Mulder heard her sniffle discreetly and saw her wipe away her tears as he followed her into the house, immediately feeling guilty for what he said to her.

Because Scully hardly ever cried.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

* * *

 **A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, I know it was a little shorter than the others so far. Please let me know if you enjoyed the chapter!**

 **Also, I have a question. Would you guys prefer one longish chapter every month or so, or one chapter about as long as the above every week?**

 **Let me know!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Iris: Chapter 5**

 _..._

 _Kiss my lips, feel the rhythm in your heart and hips_

 _I will pray, so the castle that we built won't cave._

 _The secrets you tell me, I'll take to my grave._

 _There's bones in my closet but you hang stuff anyway._

 _And if we have nightmares, we'll dance on the bed._

 _I know that you'll love me, love me, even when I loose my head...Guillotine_

 _~Guillotine, Jon Bellion._

 _..._

The Scully Family Residence

Chilmark

Martha's Vineyard

Summer of 1979

...

"Dad, umm", Scully said, hesitating over the rim of her teacup, brows furrowed. She usually wasn't nervous to bring up things with either of her parents but this was different. He had warned her to keep herself and Mulder out of Bill Mulder's colleagues way and despite how Scully always had a slightly rebellious and fiercely independent streak, she didn't like disappointing her father. "Can I talk to you about something?"

Her mother had returned to bed earlier, playfully warning all of them not to stay up too late, while Mulder had momentarily disappeared in the living room after grabbing some spare sheets and blankets to turn the pull-out sofa into a bed for the night. (Something that was a pretty common occurrence)

So it was just Scully and her dad at the kitchen table, sitting in what was initially companionable silence over the late night cups of tea that Maggie Scully had insisted on making.

William Scully observed his daughter in concern. After all, she usually only called him 'dad' to his face when things were serious, preferring to call him 'Ahab' ever since she was a very small child. "What's the matter, Starbuck?", he asked gently, clearly seeing that whatever his youngest daughter was about to tell him was really bothering her.

Scully didn't really want to bring up what she and Mulder had overheard in Bill Mulder's study with her father, but she had decided not to give him all the details. Like the fact that she and Mulder may try and sneak on to the Naval Military Base at some point.

"Mulder and I overheard something tonight in his house, something we probably shouldn't have...", Scully started, trying to gauge a reaction from her father who looked back at her in concern, albeit blankly. "Friends of Mulder's father were talking about...", she said, hesitating slightly. "Something to do with Chilmark Naval Base and how it had something to do with Samantha."

That's when her father's demeanour totally changed. He stayed silent, waiting for her to continue, but his usually sea blue eyes looked like an electric storm and his knuckles turned white, clutching the porcelain handle of his cup until Scully was sure that it would break.

She continued nonetheless, "I'm not sure what we heard or if any of it is real, but I thought I'd ask since y-".

William Scully cut his daughter off with a pointed glare and if Scully wasn't mistaken she saw a flash of fear in her father's eyes, but it was gone as quick as it came, causing her to wonder if it was ever there at all.

"Dana, I told you years ago to keep away from the men who work with Mulder's father and that damn Naval Base", he said sternly. "It's not safe."

Scully felt her stomach clench a little at her father's expression of disappointment and his use of her first name but despite all this she still felt the need to challenge him. She wasn't the little eight year old who he warned about forbidden military bases and strange cigarette smoking men anymore, she'd be eighteen soon. "But why?"

William Scully sighed in frustration, pushing his cup away from him and averting his gaze from the one across from him that reminded him so much of his fiery younger self. "The government has a right-", he started but his daughter cut across him this time.

"To keep their secrets", she finished, trying to keep her voice calm despite how she was still quite emotionally wrecked from everything she had heard earlier and also from her not yet sorted out argument with Mulder. "I know all that but why did you warn me about those men when I was a kid? What are they doing at that base, Dad and what has it to do with Mulder's little sister?" You've worked there for years, you still work there. Tell me what Mulder and I heard was wrong", she finished, her voice becoming a little more desperate than she intended it to.

"Look, Dana", William said, a sense of vulnerability about him that Scully had never seen before. He looked older than his years somehow, almost an old man. "I don't pretend to know anything about young Samantha's disappearance or what became of her but what I do know is, the men Bill Mulder associates himself with are not the kind for young women to be around. Things go on in that base, things that I don't really know anything about but I do know that they are things you need to stay well clear of", he told her with a sense of finality that made Scully think that this conversation was as good as at an end.

Scully felt a sense of guilt twist somewhere in her lower gut, always having really hated disappointing Ahab.

She had promised Mulder she would have his back no matter where he went and here was her father telling her that he had been warning her all these years for her own safety. Not wanting to upset her father further, Scully spoke up, her mind still reeling. "I'm sorry, Ahab. I shouldn't have brought it up."

William shook his head. "No, Starbuck. Whatever it is, if something is bothering you. You tell me, even if you don't think I'll want to hear it. You're my little girl and I want you home safe and happy.", he said, reaching across the kitchen table and squeezing her fingers. "Nothing will ever change that."

Scully smiled slightly despite everything. Not for the first time in her life, she found herself thanking her lucky stars that she had such good parents, they were a little interfering and overprotective at times but she always knew that they meant well. "Thanks, Ahab".

William Scully threw his daughter a sort of gruff half smile and they remained quiet for a start, watching the tea in their cups and listening to the general quietness of the house, save for the odd scuffle next door made by a restless Mulder.

"You know, I was worried when you started being friends with Fox back when you were in kindergarten.", William confessed absentmindedly after a while.

"Why?", Scully asked a little defensively. She was used to a lot of people, her older brother Bill especially, making remarks about Mulder, but in all the years she and Mulder had been friends her dad had never been one of those people.

William Scully found himself smirking affectionately. He may say, quite often in fact, that his youngest daughter is quite a bit like him but in moments like these; William Scully found himself listening to a younger redheaded version of his wife.

Getting past a momma bear protecting her cubs would be easier than having a conversation like this with Maggie or Dana when challenged about any of their loved ones.

In fact, he remembered being on the receiving end of that protectiveness pretty often when he had first started dating Maggie in the spring of 1955, back in the days when he was a smart-aleck lieutenant with hair the same colour as his daughter's on his head. Maggie's mother had disapproved of her Irish scoundrel of a son-in-law until the day she died.

"Easy, Starbuck. I was just saying that I'm just glad your boy turned out to be a decent young man considering the house he grew up in wasn't an easy one, all things considered. I'm proud of him for that, and of you. I'm glad you have each other going away to college."

Scully smiled tiredly, slightly embarrassed. Her dad wasn't usually one to talk about his feeling too much and now here he was, telling her she can come to him with any problem and that he was proud of her and Mulder. "You should tell him that yourself, Dad", she said, thinking about how Mulder had told her that no one but her cared about him outside earlier.

William chuckled, pushing back his chair and standing up. "I think I've gone soft enough for one night, huh?", he said. "I'll see you in the morning."

Chuckling, Scully agreed, she hadn't really expected anything else from her tough on the outside but soft on the inside naval captain of a dad. She saluted her father in the way she, Bill and Charlie had been doing for years. "Good sailing, Ahab", Scully said, not yet making a move to stand up even though she was definitely tired enough to sleep.

She still to sort out what happened with Mulder after all.

William Scully smiled leaning down to give his daughter a quick peck of the crown of her head, ruffling her auburn hair. It wouldn't be long now until all his children had flown the nest and even though he wouldn't admit it aloud, he wanted to cherish when he had the all in one place, Dana here with him now and the other three sleeping upstairs. "Night, Starbuck."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Hey", Mulder said, glancing up at Scully as she came in the sitting room door, all ready for bed in a baggy Beatles t-shirt she had 'borrowed' from him a while back and a pair of shorts. "Can't sleep?".

Scully shook her head lifting back the blankets and sheets that Mulder had used to make something that at least resembled a bed out of the sofa and slid in under the covers beside him.

Mulder squeezed against the back of the sofa to make room for her and wrapped his arms around her waist, a little uncertain of his actions since they had been fighting not too long ago. "You sure, Scully?", he asked, craning a bit to set his chin down on her shoulder.

"Mom and Dad are going to late mass tomorrow. We'll be up before them", she said, her voice sounding tired.

That wasn't exactly what he was asking but Mulder nodded nonetheless as Scully settled herself in his arms, despite how her body was still as tense as he felt when pressed against his.

Neither of them spoke. Silence had never felt this awkward between them.

"Look Scully, I'm really sorry about what I said earlier about you not caring about me. That was stupid and really insensitive", Mulder confessed, nuzzling against her cheek with his nose as Scully tiredly laid a hand on his arm, absentmindedly toying with the hairs. "I know you care, you wouldn't have stood by me as long as you have if you didn't."

Scully sighed quietly. "You're right, it was stupid", she agreed. "And hurtful. But I shouldn't have been so harsh with what I said to you either, you found out something pretty serious tonight and I knew your relationship with your family and what happened to Samantha were sensitive topics. I should have been calmer considering everything that was going on."

"I don't blame you for freaking out a bit considering all that shit I've put you through over the years", Mulder said, with a humourlessly self depreciating bark of laughter, a hint of sarcasm in his "Bet your glad now that you sat with me the first day of elementary school, huh Scully?"

Scully hummed thoughtfully, thinking over their last thirteen years together. Sure, a lot of tragedy had befallen his family, tragedy that she had stuck around to help him with the aftermath of but they've had a lot of fun too growing up together. "Even if I'd known back then what I know now, I wouldn't change a day."

Mulder smiled, kissing her gently on the cheek, brushing back her hair with his index finger. They both stayed silent for a while, this time comfortably.

She could hear Mulder breathing normally behind her and she could tell he wasn't asleep yet. "I never asked you how you were feeling?", Scully questioned after some time.

"Honestly?", Mulder asked, knowing her well enough to know, without looking, that she was sporting her typical Scully frown. Of course she wanted him to be honest with her. "Like I need to find the truth."

Scully spoke up again, a steeliness in her voice that told Mulder that she was behind him one hundred percent. "We've seen the truth, Mulder", she said confidentially for his sake, despite how she was afraid of what they might find in that base if anything they overheard was true. "Now we need answers."

There was no question about it; they were going together

* * *

Please review!


	6. Chapter 6

**Iris: Chapter 6**

 _..._

 _Take my hand and we can go walking,_

 _And we can talk about whatever is on your mind,_

 _Be my friend, but secretly you like me,_

 _I wanna catch you staring and make you go all red_

 _~Picture This, Take my Hand_

 _..._

...

The Scully Family Residence

Chilmark

Martha's Vineyard

Summer of '79

...

Scully was in that hazy place between waking and sleeping when she felt a warm breath against her ear, then the tender brush of his lips, burning as they make contact with her neck and nuzzling her shirt aside to press hot open mouthed kisses on her collarbone.

Heat radiated from the trails left behind and a tingly sensation of anticipation started in places still untouched.

She was disoriented for a second but then remembered that she had crawled in with Mulder on the sofa a few hours ago.

"Muuuulder", Scully moaned quietly, before rolling over in his arms and without saying anything, brushed her lips against his. She tilted his head to the side and kissed him, her lips devouring him hungrily .

Mulder felt a smouldering heat deep within him as Scully's grip tightened, so crushing her body to his, gentle yet firm, he slanted her head further, deepening the kiss and rolled them both over, Scully chuckling aloud at the suddenness of his actions, until she was flushed beneath him against the slightly sticky leather of the couch.

He groaned softly and cupped her face with one hand, the other lost in a tangle of her long titan hair. He drew back again and spent a moment studying her face. "You're gorgeous."

Scully smiled triumphantly and bit her lip, completely happy. "So are you", she told him.

Even though it was still very new (and Mulder had been concerned at first that he would squish her), she loved the feeling of his weight on top of her, especially when he was looking at her like that.

Happy, peaceful and hungry for her.

It stirred something primal deep down inside her, awakening her senses until she became very aware of everywhere their bodies met. It was comforting how some things might be confusing and upsetting and generally going to hell, but they still had each other and they still had moments of pure and unadulterated escapism like these.

Neither were sure who initiated it, but like a match being struck, the next kiss obliterated every thought.

Their minds were locked in the present and the worries of the day evaporated like a water bath over a Bunsen. Drunk on desire and endorphins they needed to touch one another, to move their hands under their night time layers and feel only heat, passion and the smoothness of skin as he lowered himself down against her and she arched her back to meet him.

Mulder savoured Scully's lips and the quickening of her breath, frantic and matching his own. A kiss like this one was a beginning, a promise of much more to come...but later. Nothing else could happen right now, not with her parents and siblings upstairs. They weren't that stupid.

Were they?

The feeling of her lips on his as her lithe hands slipped under the fabric of his t-shirt to explore the skin beneath, almost drove him to insanity and beyond. Scully relished how he gripped her hips bones, firmly without squeezing too hard, between thumb and forefinger.

Suddenly Mulder felt an arm grab his shoulder and haul him roughly off of the couch by the back of his t-shirt. "Get the hell off of my sister, you son of a bitch."

Bill Scully Jr stood next to the couch, eyes darting between them angrily, his face almost as red as his sister's hair as he moved to stand between them as though trying to separate them. "You're not sleeping with this jerk are you, Dana?"

Scully sat up on the couch indignantly, crossing her arms stubbornly over her chest, her eyes narrowed as she glared her eldest brother out of it. Even though she was well used to Bill's downright ridiculous behaviour around Mulder, didn't mean she would put up with it. "Bill, what Mulder and I do or don't do is none of your damn business. I'm so fucking sick of you treating him like crap. He's been my best friend for years and he isn't going anywhere so just get over it!"

Mulder shot her a warning glance over Bill's shoulder, shaking his head. 'It's not worth it', he tried to convey with his eyes. He had tried arguing with Bill before years ago, tried to argue that the oldest of the Scully siblings hadn't even tried to get to know him, but it was to no avail. Bill Scully Jr didn't like him and even though Mulder tried to stay civil most of the time, the feeling was pretty mutual.

"Dana, I have been trying to tell you for YEARS that this guy...", he said, pointing to Mulder accusingly. "...was only interested in one thing, getting in your pants!"

Scully rolled her eyes. "Jesus, Bill. You're such a pig! Mulder has been my friend since we were kids", she answered vehemently, her eyes flashing dangerously.

Mulder looked between, unsure if he should interrupt the argument between the two siblings. It was, after all, an argument about him. Considering Bill's past behaviour towards him, none of what the eldest Scully was saying came as much of a shock. Of course Bill would think that Mulder's intentions with his youngest sister were far from honourable.

"If you're such good friends, why the hell was he on top of you!", Bill bit back, turning around to shoot Mulder yet another death stare. "Because I don't think that's they way friends act."

Scully scoffed. "Did it look like I wasn't enjoying myself to you, William Francis Scully?"

Bill paled a little, unsure of how to answer and stayed quite for a moment, either totally scandalised by his younger sister's retort or struggling to think of a good comeback in the midst of his anger. (Mostly likely a bit of both). "But here in the house with mom and dad around? Are you insane?"

Scully chuckled humourlessly. "Did it look like we were having sex to you Bill, because I sure as hell thought we were just making out. What do you think, Mulder?", she said, asking Mulder in a way that was almost rhetorical.

Mulder nodded anyway, definitely deciding to stay out of this whole situation as much as possible.

Bill huffed, clearly seeing that he was getting nowhere with his stubborn as hell younger sister. He never did understand her fierce loyalty to Fox Mulder or what the hell she saw in him. "I wonder what mom and dad would think if they were the ones who walked in on what I just did."

This time it was Mulder rather than Scully who spoke up. He knew he had argued his case to Bill before but it truly did matter more this time, he wasn't just Scully's best friend anymore. "Look Bill, we're sorry you saw what you did. But I love your sister, I really really love her."

Bill didn't even look his direction, completely ignoring him while Scully shot Mulder a tiny half smile before turning her gaze back on her eldest brother.

She knew her mom and dad sure as hell wouldn't be too pleased if Bill told them anything, even if her and Mulder hadn't really been doing much more than kissing. Her parents were pretty conservative after all and probably would want to keep a better eye on her and Mulder for the rest of the summer.

Scully smirked, answering her brother lazily. "I wonder does Tara know you hooked up with your high school girlfriend last Christmas when you were home for the holidays."

She probably should feel bad for blackmailing Bill like this (since he had totally freaked out about the situation after it had happened and ended up, super uncharacteristically, spilling the beans to her and Melissa) but at the moment she can't find it in herself to care less.

He really could be a price sometimes, her brother.

The eldest Scully sibling seemed to shrink at her words, panic flaring up in his eyes. He backed away, moving quickly towards the door.

"Fine", Bill mumbled, his face almost purple as he slammed the door behind him.

Scully glanced over to Mulder trying desperately to hide an amused smile. No matter what, an agitated Bill Scully Jr was always pretty damn funny, almost like one of those angry cartoons with steam coming out their ears.

Mulder smirked, approaching her. From the day he met her, he had always know that even though his best friend may have been tiny in stature, Dana Katherine Scully sure could pack a punch (both metaphorically and in actuality) "Forget Bill, remind me not to get on your bad side, Scully."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

...

Outside 'Beyond Beyond'

High street

Martha's Vineyard

...

"Mulder, you're nuts!", Scully said as they approached the white washed front of 'Beyond Beyond'. The sign up over the door read in large loopy sea blue writing. 'Beyond Beyond', and just beneath it in slightly smaller orange-ish cursive. 'Start your journey towards spiritual enlightenment'.

Scully knew the place well. Two friends of Melissa's, Sunlight and Corinda (Scully doubted that that was their real names but they were the only ones her sister had ever used for them) had opened it up after high school with inheritance from some wealthy relative and since then had been tricking anyone willing to believe in their nonsense out of their money and time.

Sunlight and Corinda were into all kinds of weird and new age-y stuff and on both of the two occasions Scully had been in the shop, she found herself thoroughly unimpressed but it's obvious tackiness.

It reeked of Jasmine and Sandalwood incense and all different concoctions disguised as tea. In ever nook and cranny of the shop area hung, little trinkets for mediation and incense burners for sale. There was always daily classes for people who wanted to learn to use their 'gifts' or open their 'third eye'.

"They're total kooks.", Scully complained as Mulder headed towards the store. He hadn't even explained why he wanted to go see Sunlight and Corinda yet, just that he found a way to get answers about getting inside Chilmark Naval Base.

Mulder smirked teasingly, opening the front door for her. "You do know that most people think we're total kooks too, right?".

Scully rolled her eyes, reluctantly entering 'Beyond Beyond', the little shop suddenly filling with tinkling sounds from dolphin shaped wind chimes. She was assaulted, as expected, by the a strong smell of incense burning, Lemongrass this time.

Mulder followed closely behind her, his hand on the small of her back.

Lowering her voice a bit, Scully replied dryly, "Yeah, but we don't go around smoking pot and telling people we can see the future in a lump of foggy glass."

"Have a little faith, Scully", Mulder answered, as a tall woman with curly blonde hair, who Scully knew to be Corinda, wearing loops and loops of multi-coloured opal beads around her neck glanced up at them in a sort of half dazed and half knowing way as though she was trying to let on that she had been expecting them. "The talk around the street is that they've been to our Naval Base on a spiritual journey."

Scully looked up at him eyebrows raised sceptically as they made their way around the shop, pretending to look at the assorted knickknacks for sale, waiting for the right time to talk to Corinda (or at least in Mulder's case).

"You're kidding, right?", she whispered, pretending to inspect one of the pale pink salt lamps sitting on a shelf, glancing up at Mulder over her shoulder and frowning when she saw his shit eating grin.

She knew Mulder well enough to know what his answer would be.

"I believe in psychic ability, without a doubt", Mulder replied firmly, dropping his voice to match Scully's. "Now whether Corinda and Sunlight possess those abilities I haven't got a clue, but I do believe that they have answers of some kind."

Scully sighed reluctantly, knowing she wasn't getting out of this one too easily. Mulder was going to quiz Melissa's crazy stoner friends whether she liked it or not. "You're not one to put too much stock in the rumour mill, Mulder. So what gives?", she hissed finally, recalling how he had said that Corinda and Sunlight's 'journey' to the Naval Base had been the talk of the town.

"Just a hunch I guess", Mulder replied with a wink, making his way up to the counter in a handful of confident strides.

Scully rolled her eyes, following much less enthusiastically behind him. "Oh brother..."

...

I love the way your hair falls in the summer,

I'll treat you like your father treats your mother,

And I'm kinda scared of your older brother,

Oh yeah,

~Picture This, Take my Hand

...


	7. Chapter 7

**Iris: Chapter 6**

...

 _You're all that I'm needing,_

 _You're all that I'm feeling,_

 _And I'll be the one who's kickin' and screaming_

 _When you had to go home every evenin', Oh yeah_

 _~Picture This, Take my Hand_

 _..._

The cassette player in the corner sat on a purple silk dais, the sounds of Tibetan monks chanting filled the Sandalwood-laced air, invading the senses.

Corinda Howell, one of the store's two partners, was an overgrown waif, with masses of wavy blonde hair and tiny braids mixed haphazardly into her curls (in so many different shades it made Scully wonder if it was natural or just a really good dye job). She had a pale face and green almond shaped (albeit slightly glazed over in a dazed kind of way) eyes, emphasised with far too much eyeliner.

Her clothes were long and loose fitting in earthy tones and she wore multiple beaded necklaces and long hooped earrings.

She could have been the poster girl for the post hippie new age lifestyle.

It didn't take long for Mulder to get talking to Corinda or to ask her if she knew anything about the Chilmark Naval Base.

Pretty soon after he had, the three of them were sitting in a little booth above which was a sign for the coffee bar, flanked by dozens of painted and carved Malaysian flying figures—sphinxes, dragons and bats.

"Truth is everything", said Corinda, sounding a little dazed, like she was away with the fairies. "Everything that I do here, everything that goes on at Beyond Beyond, is part of the search for the truth-don't you know that? Mediation, yoga, astrology, divination—all of it is about unlocking information that is hidden from us. We have to learn to be open to pathways to the truth that are different from what they teach in school or preach in church. Essential truths are cosmic, and when we are brave enough to accept them and live by them, then we free ourselves to-"

Scully glanced over to Mulder, a playful light in her eyes and her brows raised in an 'I told you so' kind of way as she turned out the rest of what Corinda was saying.

After the handful of occasions she has been in and out of Beyond Beyond with Missy, she had come to know that Corinda Howell, much like anyone who claimed to have psychic 'gifts', was not one for giving straight answers.

Mulder returned her gaze briefly, clearly still not deterred by Corinda not yet having gotten to the point but was still amused by Scully's lack of patience. He gave her a small lopsided grin before turning back to listen.

"You say that you believe that Sunlight and I have knowledge on Chilmark military base", Corinda asked, apparently having come to the end of her rant when neither Mulder nor Scully had been listening.

Mulder nodded eagerly. Scully was just working hard to suppress an eye roll.

"Well, I'll have you both know that what Sunlight and I may or may not have seen during a session of astral projection is completely irrelevant to what you two are going after, things have changed since then in that base. Dark and sinister things that went on there in the not too distant past have moved on to different locations."

Mulder sat up in the booth, leaning across the table. There was no way she could have known any of what she had just said if she didn't have some sort of psychic ability. Neither he nor Scully had mentioned anything of what they had overheard in his father's study to Corinda.

"What kinds of things?", Mulder asked, trying to ignore the bubbling burst of emotions welling up inside of him, emotions he only associated with his sister's disappearance. He did his best to keep his voice emotionless.

Whatever was going on in that base had something to do with Samantha's disappearance and his father's work for the government and he was damn well going to find out what the hell was going on.

Scully slipped her hand into Mulder's underneath the table. She may not believe any of the crap Corinda was coming out with but she could see Mulder's desperation to make sense of what had happened to his family. She understood it because she had been there every step of the way with him.

Really, she just wanted to get them out of Beyond Beyond. Whatever wild goose chase they would be going on breaking into the base would only be made more dangerous if they were paying heed to some insane new age B.S coming from a woman who may or may not be as high as a kite.

Corinda closed her eyes for a long moment, contemplating her answer. "The third eye can only see so far", she answered after a moment, smiling sadly at Mulder's disbelieving expression.

Surely if she had 'seen' something that could help them, she could sense how important it was to him, how desperate Mulder was for the truth.

Scully snorted, finally having enough. She had known they shouldn't have bothered coming in here. She had told Mulder just as much right outside the door only a few minutes before.

She made to get up out of the booth but Corinda's voice stopped her. "You would do well to open your mind a little, child", she said coldly. "Your sister, your boyfriend, your family. They all find it so easy to believe in one thing or another. Why can't you? Nobody is born with their third eye sealed shut, you know? And once you learn to truly see, your mind will be open to infinite possibilities"

Scully didn't know whether to be pissed about being called a child by someone that surely couldn't be more than three or so years older than her or to be downright angry that someone she barely knew was bringing up the differences between her and the people closest to her.

Sure, Mulder believed in just about everything apart from God. Sure, her family were pretty religious. Sure, Melissa had often been up all night telling her all about cosmic alignments and auras and different types of negative energies.

But she loved all of them exactly as they were, even if she was a little afraid at times to have a faith as strong as theirs.

Clearly seeing that she was upset and annoyed, Mulder got up out of the booth with her, earning him a half smile from Scully. 'She was probably right on this one', he thought to himself. Corinda probably was just a fraud with enough neck to take people's money and time.

"Look we'd better go, thanks for your...time", he said.

Just as they turned towards the door to go, a loud harsh voice spoke behind them.

"It will happen under the next full moon."

Mulder and Scully wheeled around. Corinda had gone rigid in the booth; her eyes cloudy and unfocused, her mouth sagging, making her look a lot older than she was.

"C-corinda, are you okay?", Scully asked, immediately assuming the woman was having some kind of seizure. She had, after all, been almost certain that the woman was on something. Could she be overdosing? Scully wasn't sure...

Mulder glanced from Corinda back to Scully equally as confused as she was.

But Corinda didn't seem to hear them. Her eyes started to roll and her head drooped backwards, falling into the seat behind her. Her long slender fingers started to contort and shake. Mulder hesitated, thinking of making a break for the little oval shaped door behind the cash register, in search of a phone to call for help—and then Corinda spoke again, in the same harsh voice, quite unlike her own.

"thirty minutes after the turn of days. Rain, so much rain. Beating down on the already burdened shoulders of the two young figures in the rain. A clipped back wire. The eyes of watchdogs shining in the opposite direction, all apart from one. A man with Morley cigarettes watching them with silver eyes as they vanish into the night. They think they have escaped, but they should know better; They never will..."

Corinda's head fell on to her chest, her blonde hair splayed everywhere. She made a grunting sort of noise. Then, quite suddenly, her head snapped up again.

"I'm sorry", she said dreamily, her eyes coming a little into focus until they appeared only as glazed over as they had been before. "The heat of the day, you know...I must have drifted off for a minute there."

Mulder and Scully just stood there frozen, looking at her petrified in fascination and confusion (respectively).

Mulder seemed to be already coming to conclusions and trying to connect the dots around what Corinda had said and how it applied to the answers they had come to seek . His mind was buzzing, putting it all together. 'a clipped back wire', 'the eyes of a watchdog', 'the man with Morley cigarettes'.

It all made sense.

Scully, on the other hand, had the whole situation almost rationalised in her head. 'Surely it was all down to Corinda just being a bit stoned', the logical part of her practically begged her to believe.

But Corinda's eyes, her voice. Even if the while thing could have been faked, it still kind of gave her the creeps (Not that she'd ever tell Mulder that), especially the better about never escaping... it gave her an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.

The store was dead quiet, save for the monks on the cassette player who just kept on chanting, like white noise in the peripheral of their hearing.

Suddenly the door behind them opened and the wind chimes that had originally sounded like pleasant twinkling seemed almost like a crashing herd of elephants in comparison to the silence that was in Beyond Beyond.

It jerked them straight back to reality.

Melissa Scully walked in, appearing perfectly cheerful until her eyes landed on the alarmed expressions of her younger sister and Fox Mulder. She smirked, a little surprised to see the pair of them in here.

Melissa turned to Corinda with a nonchalant smile, a smirk playing about her lips. "You're not trying to spook my baby sister, are you?."

 _..._

 _Your feet in the sand and mine in the water,_

 _We can explore these hills if that's what you wanna do,_

 _You know I can't stand when it gets cold in the evenings,_

 _And I'm standin' there freezing but my clothes look so good on you._

 _~Picture This, Take my Hand_

 _..._

* * *

 ** _A/N: If you are enjoying this story please leave me a review. It would mean a lot :)_**

 ** _Do you guys think Corinda is for real? Is something else going on? And if so what? Will Mulder and Scully actually break into the base? And if they do what will they find? Do you think they'll get caught? If so what do you think the repercussions would be?_**

 ** _Let me know!_**


	8. Chapter 8

**Iris: Chapter 7**

 _If you need me, call me_  
 _No matter where you are_  
 _No matter how far (don't worry, baby)_  
 _Just call my name_  
 _I'll be there in a hurry_  
 _You don't have to worry_

 _~Marvin Gaye, Ain't No Mountain High Enough_

...

The Mulder Family Residence

Chilmark

Martha's Vineyard

Summer of '79

...

Mulder pushed his still sweaty hair out of his face, leaning back against the headboard as his hands did lazily little circles on the inside of her upper thigh where she was still warm and sticky from their love making earlier.

He looked very pleased with himself and Scully felt herself begin to relax into his ministrations as the path of his fingers grew closer and closer, in a nearly hypnotic fashion, to where she wanted him most. She felt herself get more and more distanced from what they were talking about earlier, before any of this had started.

Something about him driving up to the base, right?

Mulder shrugged, a smile playing about his lips, the kind of smile that brought her straight back down to earth. 'What the hell was he up to'.

Scully grumbled, moving her legs off of his, shuffling away from his exploring happy fingers. "Mulder quit trying to distract me, will you?", she scolded, kicking him away playfully as she sat up next to him on the pillows. "For God's sake, how do you expect to get a serious answer when you're hands are inches from touching my-"

Mulder chuckled, drowning out the rest of her sentence. She glared up at him pointedly.

"Okay, okay. Scully, I'm sorry", he said genuinely, expression changing to an apologetic one as he wrapped his arms around her from behind until she was half leaning against the head board and half against his bare chest. "My hands are here, right on top of your hands, no where your mother and father wouldn't want them to be on their precious daughter."

At this Scully smirked, her eyes twinkling with mischief, as she dropped one of her own hands into his lap, dangerously close to Mulder Jr.

"Today alone, your hands have already been everywhere my mother and father wouldn't approve of, Mulder."

She supposed this was definitely one of the many many upsides of dating your best friend. It was already commonplace in her house for her to disappear in the morning and be back late when she was out with Mulder. Not too many questions were asked because they had already been together so long. Her parents trusted them enough to be alone together for long periods of time because that's they way it's always been.

They trusted that the activities of their seventeen year old daughter and her best friend were not too different now than before they had become a romantic couple.

They trusted that their family's teachings and the teaching of the church they visited every Sunday without fail, had instilled a sense of morals in their children. Morals that would have them wait for marriage to consummate a relationship.

Scully supposed it was already too late for religious teachings!

Mulder gulped, his hazel eyes turning dark brown with desire, as his girlfriend's fingers cupped him, squeezing and stroking him in all the right ways from shaft to tip.

He let out a loud guttural moan, thrusting into her hand. Thank God his dad wasn't home; He was, as usual, away on business, leaving his eighteen year old son with a house to himself. (Probably not the most responsible of ideas...but since when was Bill Mulder the most responsible of guys.)

Scully smirked, giving Mulder one last stroke, her fingers swirling teasingly in his precum before letting go of him completely, scooting away on the bed until there was an almost respectable distance between their bodies.

"So Mulder, tell me what were you saying again about a possible point of entry on the Chilmark Naval base?", she asked, a devious smile playing about her lips, her eyes the picture of innocence as she watched him squirm from across the bed.

'He really does have a libido like a bottle rocket', Scully thought to herself almost affectionately, when in reality she wasn't a whole lot better. Their activities from the last few days since they had first had sex on the beach had definitely more than proved that.

Mulder eyes were wide, dark brown like melted chocolate and honeycomb, bottomless and filled with lust. Clearly he was trying to recover from what had almost happened. His mouth was gaping just a little.

"Oh yeah...well, um...the point of entry...umm...it was an...entry point to the...um, base...that we can...enter through"

Scully giggled, giddy that her touch could have her never-stuck-for-words-about-anything best friend/boyfriend absolutely stuck for words. "Kinda hard to be serious when someone's hands are all over you, huh?", she asked amused.

Mulder growled, trying to pull himself back together. He wouldn't let her beat him on this one. How on earth could his villainous saint of a best friend go from lust hooded eyes and hand jobs to giggles in a blink of an eye like that.

He loved that they could explore this new side of each other now, the feral, carnal and sexual side. It was good, whole, beautiful, a way to escape the confusion and pain of their reality and just live in their own little bubble together for a short but precious while.

Wonders never seized.

Mulder sat up uncomfortably straight in the bed, under the very smug gaze of one Dana Scully.

"I'm telling you, Scully; I drove the perimeter of the base today and the fence is broken about a quarter mile from the north entrance, just like Corinda told us, 'a clipped back wire'". He said all of this very fast, trying to keep his voice even.

Scully smiled triumphantly, returning to her original position leaning against the head board, her arms crossed over her chest.

Victory sure was sweet, but she wasn't going to be too mean. It was best if they dropped their teasing game for now. They had, after all, things to talk about...like the state of mind that Scully was almost certain Corinda was in when she revealed said "prophecy" that Mulder seemed to believe wholeheartedly in.

"Mulder, did you see her eyes? If I was that stoned—", Scully began to argue sceptically but Mulder smirked dryly, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

"Oooh, if you were that stoned what?". He knew this wasn't something to joke about, none of it was when it came to Samantha, but it was a defence mechanism.

Scully rolled her eyes, only smiling slightly and half heartedly swatting him on the arm. She knew why he was acting the way he was, to make her think he was okay even when

"I'm just saying that you really need to consider the possibility that she was bullshitting us."

Grumbling in frustration, Mulder tutted aloud, throwing his head back dramatically. Despite his joking and fooling around, he really did need her to see how seriously he was taking this. This was about his father and his sister.

The truth behind everything that had happened to his tragically dysfunctional family in the past six years.

He always tried to act as though he were he was able to hold everything together inside, that was what he was trying to do even then, but he felt his resolve slipping.

The dam he built around his emotions was slowly crumbling until he, inevitably, had to let Scully in.

That was just how they were, how they always had been.

"Scully, the wire was broken just like she said it would be. We're wasting time over-thinking this. We need to act, I need to act-", his voice broke off as it struck him, once again, what he was going to do.

His father; a man who he had admired as a small child and grown indifferent to in his early teen; A man who was never around for his wife or son after his daughter disappeared; A man who could have been behind the same disappearance of his daughter.

The thought brought back a blazing upsurge of pain and memories that Mulder always tried his best to keep locked away, even from Scully: Samantha's smile bright and carefree like any little girl her age, her voice and the teasing sing song tone she always adopted when she teased her older brother, her screams for help as she was taken, screams that Mulder has been trying to answer to ever since.

Scully knew where his thoughts had wandered to, she always knew.

She knew that there was no talking to him when it came to finding Samantha, there never had been, it was why he was so adamant to get into that damn base.

His parents always told him to move on, even though they barely had themselves. They hired shrinks to treat him, men and women who more or less told him the same thing, albeit more tactfully.

His mother had even suggested recently that they have a funeral service for Samantha to try and bring the family some closure.

Neither Mulder nor Scully had talked much about that since he first brought it up a few weeks before. He wasn't able to let go of his sister, not when he could feel that she was still out there. She had to be!

Scully wanted to believe for his sake and on the odd time she found herself praying, she prayed for Sam.

Scully knew there was no 'moving on' for Mulder. Sorrow isn't something a person can leave behind, it becomes part of them. It changes the way you see, feel, and think, and every once in a while sometimes completely unexpectedly, the pain isn't remembered, it's relived.

She saw first hand how loosing Samantha changed Mulder, it changed her too. It made both of them grow up a lot quicker than they should have. It brought them further from everyone else and bound them even closer together irreversibly. Together they had seen things they couldn't explain, things they couldn't tell anyone else without seeming completely insane.

"I'm just worried about you", Scully sighed, putting a hand on Mulder's cheek, guiding him closer and grounding him to her so the darkness wouldn't take hold and she could make him see sense. "I know you want answers, I do too...but we can't walk into this blindly, it wouldn't end well. We need more than some crazy choice words about a hole in a fence from one of Missy's new age, hippie fortune teller friends"

Mulder frowned, ready to argue. He couldn't keep waiting to take action, it was eating him up inside. His sister was out there somewhere...and his father and those other men from the Naval Base knew all about it. " I can't do it anymore", sounding more desperate than angry.

On one hand, he needed to see what was going on in that base but on the other, he didn't want Scully to get hurt in the process.

The hopelessness in Mulder voice broke Scully's heart, he could see it. He could see it in the way her eyes watered and feel it in the way she was holding on to him, like their lives depended on it.

Mulder continued, "I can't not know what happened to her anymore. I can't keep going like this...not when we're this close to the truth. I understand if you need more to go on, I really do. Like I said before, I won't watch you risk your life on this, Scully. But I accept the risk myself, I have to."

Scully smiled sadly, humourlessly, as she absentmindedly traced the corner of his mouth, seeing everything that was left unsaid in his deep hazel eyes. She knew he had to do this, with or without any evidence to go by. She knew how goddamn stubborn he could be sometimes, he knew because she was like that too.

Scully knew she could dig her heels in and say she wasn't going with him unless they had something real and tangible to go on, but she knew he would go anyway. For him there was no other choice.

But there was none for her either. Mulder needed someone with him, he needed her with him.

And she needed him.

"Mulder, as crazy as I think be living Corinda is, I'm going with you. I made up my mind about that days ago...years ago even"

Mulder looked up at Scully guiltily, reaching out and tucking his fingers under her chin until all he could see was the blue of her eyes. Blue like logic. Blue like reason. Blue like peace and refuge.

His Scully. His best friend. His constant and touchstone.

Could he really walk in there with her by his side? Could he really risk loosing her when she was the only person left in his life who he really and truly loved unconditionally.

Mulder knew they had had this very discussion that night in her living room, but his own internal struggle about steering them straight into danger had persistently haunted him since.

Corinda said they would think that they had escaped, but really the never would. Those were the words of her prophecy that had haunted him the most. Would his determination for answers condemn them to a fate that would last the rest of their lives? He could never do that to Scully.

It was the one thing that stopped him from getting in his car and driving to the base right now.

"Mulder", Scully whispered, pulling him away from his thoughts and closer to her until their faces were centimetres apart, personal space a completely lost concept as her breath fell on his face and his on hers. "It's my choice and I choose you...over and over again. Always. Can't you see that?"

Scully knew that many people would take Mulder's needless protectiveness as demeaning because she was a girl, but she didn't and, as was everything with Scully, there was reason behind it; She was just as protective of him. Gender stereotypes had nothing to do with it, it never had.

There was just pure mutual concern for one another and an urgent to keep each other away from danger. It was why she was determined to go with him and why he wished she wasn't.

Scully let her thumb run across his jawline soothingly and held his troubled gaze as she continued. "I've seen first hand how much losing your sister has changed you and affected you and I'm still here. Don't you remember the promise two fifteen years olds smoking a cigarette made on the porch of my house three years ago?"

Mulder nodded slightly. Of course he remembered, it had been the three year anniversary of Samantha's abduction and he hadn't slept at all in three days. He met Scully, who hadn't been able to sleep either, on the porch of her house and they blew smoke rings with a shared cigarette into the cool November night. She assured him that he would find Samantha and promised that she would be with him every step of the way.

"I'm not going to win this argument, am I?", Mulder said, a small smile reluctantly creeping up on his face; He should have known he wouldn't stand a chance with her.

Scully shook her head. "Not a chance."

Laying his forehead against hers, Mulder hummed thoughtfully as he pulled the covers back up around both of them until they were decently covered up again. "Thought so."

Scully smiled affectionately, her eyes serious as he rubbed his nose against hers. "You're bat crap crazy, you know that right?", she said, only receiving an amused smirk in response.

"When are we going?"

"Have any plans for tonight?", Mulder asked the same quirk of his eyebrows that had, paired with his tragically background and outlandish theories, earned him the nickname 'Spooky'.

Meanwhile, neither of them noticed how the door was cracked open slightly. A steely pair of grey eyes watched them from the door, having listened to the whole exchange.

A pair of eyes that belonged to a man who lit a Morley's cigarette and walked away as the teenaged couple, to seal their new understanding, closed the distance between each other once again.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Ain't no mountain high enough_  
 _Ain't no valley low enough_  
 _Ain't no river wide enough_  
 _To keep me from getting to you, babe_

 _~Marvin Gaye, Ain't No Mountain High Enough_

* * *

 ** _Sooooo thoughts? Let me know?_**


	9. Chapter 9

**Iris: Chapter 8**

 _..._

 _I see trees of green, red roses too_  
 _I see them bloom for me and you_  
 _And I think to myself what a wonderful world_

 _I see skies of blue and clouds of white_  
 _The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night_  
 _And I think to myself what a wonderful world_

 _~Louis Armstrong_

 _..._

The Mulder Family Residence

Chilmark

Martha's Vineyard

Summer of '79

...

Quashing the end of his Morley's cigarette on the dashboard, Carl Gerhard Bush Spender pulled into the driveway up to the house of his long-time friend and colleague Bill Mulder.

The wheels of his '76 black Sudan crackled desolately on the limestone gravel as the car came skidding to a halt outside the once welcoming family home for the third time that week.

Spender had a slightly strained and complicated relationship with the man of the house, conflicting opinions on ethics, his(Spender's) affair with Bill Mulder ex wife; Teena Mulder, sacrifices that they all had to make as a group, as well as the matter of Bill's eldest son, Fox's, parentage had seen to that.

Why didn't they part ways then, you might ask?... the answer was simple; they needed each other for the project to come full circle. They worked towards a common goal. Their partnership was a means to an end.

Shutting the car door behind him as he climbed out into the sunlight, Spender lit another cigarette, bringing it up to his mouth for a long drag and approached the house like a chain-smoking spectre.

He reached out and pressed the doorbell, standing out of the hot summer sunshine under the shade of the Victorian style veranda.

The Mulder Family Residence didn't feel much like a home anymore, just a place where two men, one young and one middle aged, stayed on the nights when they had no place better to be.

Spender knew what outsiders saw when they looked at the homes of the wealthy on Martha's Vineyard; To someone who didn't know better, it looked like the American dream itself in place, a place where men had made their fortunes and were living the good life with their families...what a childish fantasy.

Anyone who was anyone knew that was not the case for most of the families on the Vineyard, all of the families who had members of the consortium anyway.

The American dream was a big ugly lie, Spender knew it and so did Bill Mulder. No man pulls himself up by his bootstrap is always money, wealth and power behind it all. Always.

Spender waited a few moments until he heard footsteps approach the front door from the door opened to reveal Bill Mulder, just the man who he was looking for.

"Carl", Bill said, almost sounding bitter at the sight of the other man.

He was barely in the door from a meeting in Washington on behalf of the Syndicate and he had already started a pointless argument with his eighteen year old son (who was out the door with that Scully girl almost as soon as he had entered the house).

That coupled with how Bill never did like Spender's methods much, not to mention how; his disregard for human life always made him feel uneasy, despite how he knew it was a means to an end, made for not so great a host. "To what do I owe the pleasure."

Spender smirked, his colleague's discontent clear to him.

He knew Bill Mulder wouldn't be too pleased that he had been inside his house only a few hours earlier, but he had suspected that Bill's (or rather his own, but few were privy to that knowledge) son and William Scully's daughter were landing themselves straight into the middle of something they shouldn't be anywhere near.

Spender was already considering going as far as to have them tailed by one of their more junior members of the Syndicate.

Possible Reginald Williams, also known as 'X' as he signed his reports. That was if he, Spender, could get around the young eager African American agent to comply, which he was certain he could...

"I want nothing more than to spend some time with an old friend", he replied, smiling in sickly sweet sort of way.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

...

Bill Mulder's Study

The Mulder Family Residence

Chilmark

Martha's Vineyard

Summer of '79

...

The needle of the vinyl scraped softly on the record and the sounds of static filled the air for a few seconds before the voice of Louis Armstrong began to croon out the lyrics to 'What a Wonderful World'.

 _...I see trees of green, red roses too. I see them bloom for me and you and I think to myself what a wonderful world..._

Bill Mulder scowled into his tumbler of single malt whiskey, his thick brown cigar lying forgotten in the ash tray between the two forty-something year old men.

"What do you want, Carl?", he said, getting to the point.

He had enough of this! He had enough of the two of them sitting around and blowing smoke at one another, especially when it was evident that Spender had come here to talk to him for a reason.

Spender smiled, taking a long sip of whiskey. "Your son and his little friend are outgrowing our initial hopes for them."

Bill just scoffed in response. It was no surprise to him that his son Fox and the Scully girl had been under evaluation for recruitment for when they finish university, even though he had known for years that the work he and Spender did wouldn't ever suit either of them—they would never put loyalty to a cause over their loyalty to each other and to their own morals, he knew that. "I could have told you that years ago."

Spender hummed thoughtfully, sitting back into the leather chair. He paused for a second to reach into his pocket and pull out his lighter. He lit the end of a cigarette and breathed in deeply.

"That may be so, Bill but I believe that they are now beginning to align themselves against our agenda."

Bill swallowed his next mouthful of whiskey as though it were bitter poison. He gauged the emotions of the man across from him, smirking at his findings. "You don't feel threatened by two children, do you Carl?", he asked almost mockingly, having learned a long time ago that he had to act as coldly as the next man to get anything done.

Spender chuckled darkly, trying to suppress a frown—civility was a price they had to pay around one another and they both knew it. "That's why I like you, Bill", he said even though he was well aware that you could never go as far to say the two of them liked one another. "You always were a comedian...No, I was simply wondering if you had any sort of hand on your son at all if he's making plans to wander into a government base right under your nose?"

"Shouldn't you be asking the same question to William Scully", Bill asked offhandedly, bitterness creeping into his voice. He knew damn well why he had no hand on Fox anymore, he lost all connection with his son shortly after Samantha disappeared and their family fell apart.

"William Scully doesn't know the things that you know, the things that I know."

Bill frowned, reaching for his cigar and taking a long drag. He could tell by the glint in Spender's eyes that the other man had a plan in place for whenever Fox and Dana were planning on breaking in and entering the base. "I hope you don't have anything planned for my son that will leaving lasting damage."

Spender smiled perversely, he had no intentions of seriously hurting Fox Mulder (at least for now while his acts of rebellion were small enough to manage) but he couldn't taunt Bill a little bit.

"Of course not, I do happen to care for the boy. He is my son after all", he replied, putting emphasis on the 'my', emphasis he knew would make Bill's blood boil inside. "The girl on the other hand...I do think William Scully owes us a child at this point, he has gotten away lightly so far."

Bill's dark brown eyes grew firm and his mouth became taut. Trying to sound offhanded, he spoke up.

"Have you any idea how high the bills I have been paying for shrinks have been in the last six years. If losing Samantha drove Fox right up to the edge, losing Dana Scully will send him flying straight off...Even my bank account can't afford that, let alone my reputation."

Spender chuckled, the same dark laughter from before bubbling right up out of him. Damn, it felt good to be in control.

He had known for years that Bill Mulder only gave off an exterior of coldness. The night before Samantha was due to be taken, Bill had begged on hands and knees for his daughter to be spared. Spender wasn't going to forget that too easily.

Spender smiled in a sickly sweet sort of way. He knew Bill Mulder would eventually pay the price for his position, his money and his life spent in luxury, so would William Scully in due time.

"Alright Bill, for now I'll spare both of them...since we're such good friends."

Theyes sat in silence after that, the sounds of the record filling the otherwise quiet study as Louis Armstrong came to the most ironic part of his song-ironic at least for them...

 _"I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do. They're really saying I love you" ...if only, Louis. If only..._

 _..._

 _The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky_  
 _Are also on the faces of people going by_  
 _I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do_  
 _They're really saying I love you_

 _I hear babies crying, I watch them grow_  
 _They'll learn much more than I'll never know_  
 _And I think to myself what a wonderful world_  
 _Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world_

 _..._


	10. Chapter 10

**Iris**

...

The Docklands

Chilmark

Martha's Vineyard

Summer of '79

...

Dirty raindrops pissed out of the sky, wetting the pavement out on the edge of the harbour. The sky was navy blue and the air was bitter coming in from the sea.

Carl Spender came into focus, a lone wolf on the prowl in the empty street. He carried a metal brief case, trying not to jostle it too much as his coat tails whipped around his calves in the late summer wind.

The streetlamps above cast a misty sort of glow on the pavements below them, making his skin appear nearly translucent, betraying every line in hollow in an almost skeletal fashion.

Ducking up an alleyway, Spender clearly knew where he was going; towards the black sedan that had been waiting there for him for the past few hours.

Opening the boot without even an acknowledgement to the car's driver, he carefully placed his package inside. It would come into play later.

"Got some more horny teenagers you want me to trail this week?", the young African American agent asked him bitterly as soon as Spender got himself situated in the passenger side. "The captain of the football team? the head cheerleader? or maybe some more social outcasts? They seem to be your favourites?"

Reggie Williams was so fucking sick of his job and he had only been working for Spender a few months. 'Reggie go shake up Mayor What's-his-face', 'Reggie make sure old Whatsername keeps her mouth shut', 'Reggie spend the next 48 hours chasing around some dopey looking kid who wants to save the world and his little red haired girlfriend'.

He had expected excitement and money and the full thrill factor when he was recruited for the Syndicate. Reggie had fancied himself the next James Bond-esque character. Shaken not stirred, if you please...he fucking wished.

Like hell itself, he had sat hungry in the front of this very damn sedan all night watching a couple of stupid kids go for pizza and then take a drive towards the local military base, apparently sizing up an entrance his boss had told him...who the fuck did they think they were kidding, the only way they would get in there is if they were wanted in there, otherwise there wasn't gonna be a hope in hell they would get anywhere near the place.

Spender chuckled darkly, always slightly amused by the younger man's frustration. He had been eager to please at first but now he had turned fiery and easily pissed off, two days on surveillance duty would do that to a man.

"You can get some rest later, Reginald. We need to talk first", Spender said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a pack of Morley's cigarettes. "Want a smoke?"

Reggie was just about to decline the offer since he never had touched a cigarette in his life but instead, found himself considering it. His day had already been the fucking pits, what harm could it do? "I don't usually."

"There's always a time to start."

So he did, and they puffed away in silence for a few minutes.

"I need you to look after a little something for me, Reginald."

Reggie tossed his still burning cigarette out of the window. It sizzled on the wet pavement. "And what's that?", he asked, half heartedly. Complaint aside, he needed his job and he needed his money. It had been the only thing keeping himself and his mother afloat after his father died.

Spender smiled, he knew he could get people to do whatever he wanted of them. "I'm sure your aware that Bill Mulder's son is planning a break into Chilmark Base".

Reggie nodded, waiting for the older man to continue.

"I need you to make sure they remember nothing afterwards and I have given you a little gift to do just that."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Reggie was on his way home...and he was so fucking glad of it too. Already he was daydreaming about a hot bath, some food and his bed, none of which he had seen a whole lot of in the last week or so.

Suddenly he heard a pair of footsteps behind him on the pavement, quickening when he moved his pace up and slowing down when he did. The footsteps went up the same streets and around the same bends.

Well fuck this anyway...he was being followed.

Suddenly a pair of hands grasped his elbows in a vice like grip, ramming him into the front face of one of the older crumbling houses on his block.

A pair of brown eyes fixed him with a stern gaze under masses of curly dark hair. He knew this man...of course he fucking did. It was one of Spender's right hand guys. Deep Throat, Reggie thought the other men called him.

"What do you want?", Reggie asked, pissed off. He may be wary of Spender but that didn't mean the sentiment stretched to the other men he worked for. "I'm going home for the first time in a week, thank you."

Deep Throat pressed Reggie harder against the wall, his breath hot on the other man's face. "I hear Spender has given you a little job."

The young African American shrugged. He wasn't supposed to let word of his work get around. It was worth more than his life was and he was damn certain Old Smoky wouldn't hesitate to put a bullet between his ears. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Well, I want to let you know that if anything happens to either of those two kids you're tailing, you're finished. They'll be worth a lot to our cause in a few years. We need them alive if we're going to fight the future."

Reggie shrugged again, glaring. He turned to move away from the other man. He didn't need this kind of shit now. Sure, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully seemed like good kids, but they were dumb as fuck if they thought they could best the likes of Spender. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Deep Throat frowned, "When your finished with this job, make sure you get a message to me with the kids location and what state they're in. Sign it as 'X' to hide your identity. You will find that I'm a much fairer man to work with then my friend Carl"


End file.
